Mahler - Symphony No 6 - Thomas Sanderling, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical APE + CUE 2 Cd, Covers 386 Mb RS Date: 2000
Thomas Sanderling, son of the great Kurt Sanderling, shows signs of being every bit the Mahlerian his father is. (The elder Sanderling earlier recorded a legendary performance of the Mahler 10th Symphony which now appears to be reissued imminently, an occasion of true note.)Despite the orchestral setting, Sanderling (and his father) are German, not Russian, having ended up on the eastern side of the Cold War Divide after WWII. The great Central European tradition so helpful for being a good Mahlerian is part of their shared musical heritage despite the fact that the son spent a far larger fraction of his life in the Soviet Union than did the father.There are a few tough benchmarks out there for any new performance of the Mahler 6th to meet or beat if it is to catch my attention. And, for each of these few exemplary recordings by my measurements, there are probably two to three times as many that I find myself not able to listen to at all. Somewhere between these two extremes is a large number of Mahler 6ths that may please others more than they please me, and so that is "what makes the world go round."The two Mahler 6th performances against which I inevitably compare others are the second Bernstein recording, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, on DG ("Bernstein II," to distinguish it from his earlier Columbia Masterworks [now Sony] recording with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), and one by Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic, on Carlton Classics. (Both of these are available elsewhere at Amazon.com The Zander sometimes has "availability" problems, but it is well worth the wait.)What distinguishes the Bernstein II and Zander performances in my mind are several factors: The overall sense of the architecture of the piece as realized in the performance; the ability of each of these two conductors to treat his orchestra as one "of soloists," as Mahler intended; the virtuosic performances of these musicians (in Zander's case, a group of "semi-pro" musicians, remarkably); the correct sense of the beauty underlying the themes of the third-movement Andante moderato, with its constantly-shifting major-minor tonalities that suggest emotional ambiguity as little other music can; and, finally, the sense of absolute, crushing tragedy in the closing bars of the final movement. When performances are this fine, it matters little - if at all - whether the final movement has two or three hammer blows, or whether the Andante moderato movement is placed second or third in the order of movements. (Mahler had second and third thoughts on its placement, which is third in these two recordings and in the Sanderling recording under review. But, with easily-programmable CD players, the listener can readily have his choice in the matter.)With all of that as "groundwork," let me simply state that this Sanderling performance is fully the equal of the Bernstein II and the Zander on all levels. Sanderling has a sense of the work that is quite in line with those of the other two conductors, his St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra provides wonderful playing of a warm resonance not often heard in Western orchestras, and the engineers provide a soundscape that is far better than those provided by Russian (and Soviet) engineering teams in the past. The high points - as in the Bernstein and Zander performances - are in the last two movements. The Finale in particular has that shattering intensity and sense of crushing finality in the closing measures that will leave you limp. (As a side note, the hammer blows - always a subject of controversy because there are either "one too many" or "one too few" and because they are either "inaudible" or "too instrusive" [a charge leveled against the Zander performance, but one with which I can easily live] are "just right" in this shattering performance.)As if all that weren't enough, this 2-CD recording, complete with a nicely-annotated booklet, is priced at a level that is simply irresistable. It should be in every Mahlerite's collection.
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